How is everyone? As I write this post, it’s been a year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m hanging in there, but it definitely takes conscious effort to make sure my mental health is on the right track. I hope you are hanging in there too!
Navigating this “new normal” has been an adventure, but I suppose one of the bright spots is virtual events. They allow for a wider audience to access really awesome content and experiences. This past year the Japan Foundation has been hosting a series of virtual panels on anime and manga. They’ve done panels on the works of Satoshi Kon and Ghost in the Shell. So naturally, it was only a matter of time until there was one on Sailor Moon!
This panel featured several academics–Dr. Kumiko Saito, Dr. Samantha Close, Dr. Kathryn Hemmann and Mari Morimoto–who you may remember was one of the translators of the English Sailor Moon manga, the Kodansha 2nd generation edition. I’ve linked the panel above for you to watch, but I wanted to provide a written summary of the event as well.
The first half of the event had the panelists presenting a powerpoint presentation. First up was Dr. Kumiko Saito from Clemson University who summarized the history of the magical girl genre. She talked about how the genre started in the 60s and 70s with shows like Sally the Witch and Himitsu no Akko-chan. Early magical girl shows were aimed at girl from 4 to 9 years old. However, with the introduction of Cutie Honey, the genre began to become more sexy.
In the 80s, there was Minky Momo and Creamy Mami that exemplified cuteness and fine tuned the art of the transformation sequence. More adult male fans began enjoying the magical girl genre.
In the 90s, Sailor Moon arrived amidst an economic bust–the first magical girl sentai team. During this time, there were several gender defying anime at the time like Ranma 1/2, Ghost in the Shell, and La Belle Fille Masquée Poitrine. Beyond Sailor Moon, magical girls these days are cuter, queerer and physically stronger than in the past. Empowerment = cute.
Next up was Mari Morimoto’s presentation. She talked about what it was like translating the Sailor Moon manga and what it meant to her and her queer identity. She mentioned that she was not familiar with the anime, but became a fan when the 2nd generation of the manga came out in Japanese. She particularly enjoyed the character of Haruka and her gender fluid identity. She talked about some choices that she and the Kodansha team made regarding the Starlights. For example, they made the decision to use male and gender neutral language when they are first introduced. She also advocated for using man/women and gender rather than male/female and sex. And, of note, in the original Sailor Moon manga, “Sailor Star Lights” and “Sailor Anima Mates” were written with a dot between the words, so this is why they included a space between the words in the English edition. (Note: In the Eternal Edition, a dash is used.)
In Dr. Samantha Closes‘s presentation, she talked about Sailor Moon and censorship. Apologies, my notes are sparse for this one!
In Dr. Kathryn Hemmann’s presentation, she talked about fandom in the 90s. She talked about how fandom played out with internet accessibility, stores like Media Play and conventions. She even noted how anime has made it to the mainstream–the February 2017 issue of Glamour, has Jennifer Marlow talking about Sailor Moon.
She also talked about how conventions and artist alleys provided an outlet for future artists like Rebecca Sugar, the creator of the widely popular and unabashedly queer Steven Universe. In fact, Dr. Hemmann noted that Rebecca Sugar used to create naughty Sailor Moon comics. Dr. Hemmann also posed a fascinating question. Conventions and artist alleys allowed fans to wear their fandom with pride–so did conventions allow for more queer representation in mainstream animation or did mainstream animation allow fans to be openly queer? (If I understood her correctly!) Nonetheless, Dr. Hemmann made a strong case that the influence of fandom can’t be ignored in the creation of mainstream animation.
After the presentation, Mari Morimoto led a discussion between the panelists. She shared the results of character popularity poll that was done when attendees signed up for the event. She also compared the results against the recent NHK poll done in Japan. The differences were striking! Most of the inner senshi appeared at the top of the event poll, however, most of the outer senshi appeared at the top of the NHK poll.
Sailor Uranus was number one in the NHK poll. I was very surprised by this, but after the panelists gave their thoughts I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Dr. Saito noted that Haruka very much occupied the role of “cool sempai” that Japanese school girls often adore. Dr. Saito also noted that she was surprised Sailor Jupiter ranked so high; normally in sentai fandom the “green” character is the least popular; this character is seen as a “support” character. Dr. Hemmann noted that many of the top characters in the NHK poll were also popular characters that were paired with Usagi in 90s fan comics (Haruka, Sailor Uranus, Seiya, Minako). It was also noted that in Japanese polls characters and their alter egos are often separated out whereas in Western polls, they are not. No one could explain this, however, Mari did note that she could see how one might be a fan of Haruka as opposed to Sailor Uranus–after all, Haruka’s gender expression is more fluid as opposed to Sailor Uranus whose presentation is more strictly female.
All in all, it was a really interesting and fun event. I’m so glad these smart, thoughtful women are in academia and publishing, making sure that content created for girls and women is taken seriously. During the discussion, the topic of Takarazuka came up and there seemed to be much enthusiasm for the panelists to return to discuss this topic. I really hope Japan Foundation makes that event happen–I’m looking forward to it!
